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Comment by mirsadm | Hacker News Reader

I'm not sure I get this one. Why would you not want something delivered to your house? Isn't that what the post office does if you aren't there to accept the package?

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In NYC at least (admittedly an outlier in the united states), most apartments don't have doormen and there's no place to leave packages and package pickup locations are almost uni formally in warehouse districts/boroughs hard to access via public transit

Same here in Montevideo, Uruguay.

I actually had thought of a variant on the idea, but never implemented it. I love it, and would like to have it implemented here (maybe if things are going better for me next year, I could partner with them :) ).

There's a lot of potential IMO.

Most people I know in NYC get their packages delivered to their office.

USPS won't take UPS or FedEx. UPS and FedEx don't have a way into my building. I don't have a car to get out to the airport where the UPS center is. University mail room policy is no personal packages at work. So I basically can't shop online.

Not true!

If you can list the street address of the Post Office along with the P.O. Box number the USPS will accept it.

The reason FedEx, UPS, DHL, TNT, etc "don't deliver" to P.O. Boxes is that they don't maintain the same database of "which post office has which P.O. Box for which zip code" that the USPS does. If they don't maintain this mapping, how is the delivery driver supposed to know where to go?

I don't have a PO Box, just a gang box inside of my apartment door.

EDIT: but the owners of the pizza place next door know me pretty well, and they have received packages for me before

Post offices have very short hours. And most packages are delivered via UPS, Fedex etc. Their hours aren't much better and they have far fewer depots. When DHL still served the US I once had to drive 45 minutes (each way) to get to their depot which was only open 9-5.

I actually had to stay home from work today to take delivery of a tent that UPS would not leave, and would not allow me to pick up from the UPS facility. This sounds like a really awesome idea.

If you have a car, going down to the local UPS or FedEx depot usually isn't too bad but if you don't have a car (e.g. most people in NYC) it can be a real nightmare. In urban areas, depots tend to be in industrial areas with poor mass transit access. Accordingly, having a local, secure, place to have packages dropped would be a great service for the latter group.

Sure the package could be left at the post office, but happens when you go to pick it up, only to find out the office is closed? BufferBox allows you to pick up your package at your connivence.

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